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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Potato and Lemon Thyme Frittata

We love our lemon thyme plant. Every time when we are relaxing at our balcony, my son will pick a few of our lemon thyme, crush the leaves, rub them on his hands and then smell his hands with lots of deep breath.

"Mummy, do you want to smell my hands?" He will then ask me to smell the leaves with him and I will. Indeed, I think lemon thyme did smell a little like lemon and we both loves the fragrance of lemon and these lemon thyme leaves. This recipe from the MasterChef Magazine, July 2011 issue is quite unique; it uses lemon thyme to enhance the taste of a frittata. Good that this magazine is free, but only for this issue from its app download.

Being a health freak, I never like the idea of using butter in my savoury cooking but today, I will try cooking this frittata as much as I can in the "MasterChef" way. Or maybe not exactly... I did try to stick to the recipe as much as I can but it is always limitations in some cases...

When I buy a bunch of spring onions or leeks, they usually come in a bundle of 8-10 and the frustration bit is that I need only 2 of each in this recipe! To minimise wastage, I have decided to replace leek with the the white parts of spring onion. I didn't want to waste extra money again, buying flat-leaf parsley and so I replaced them with baby spinach which is part of our salad for the day. Plus, another ingredient in this recipe, the white balsamic vinegar is not easily available in any local stores and supermarkets and so it is not available at the time when I cook this dish. I reckon...trying to cook like a MasterChef is really not easy and very money consuming. I think I'm more like a thrifty mum in this case. LOL!

Despite all the efforts, this dish is really really really delicious just like what a good cafe would serve. The spring onion dressing is a must to compliment this dish and my husband and son think that I should cook more like a "MasterChef" more often... Hmmm :)

Cooking the frittata...

The Delicious Spring Onion Dressing - a must to compliment this frittata

Here's the recipe from the MasterChef Magazine, July 2011

(with my minor modification and notes in blue)

Potato and Lemon Thyme Frittata

Serve 4 as a light meal

60g butter

2 leeks, white part only, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced

(replaced by white parts of spring onions)

2 garlic cloves garlic, crushed

8 sprigs lemon thyme, leaves picked

2 large Desiree potatoes, peeled, cut into 2 cm pieces(used only 1, 2 is too much for us to finish)

Meanwhile, melt remaining butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add thyme and potatoes, and cook, turning for 5 min or until golden. Using a slotted spoon, remove potatoes and drain on paper towel. Add half the potatoes (I added all from 1 potato) to the leek (white spring onion) mixture and season.

Place parsley (I didn't add this), Parmesan and eggs in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour egg mixture over leek (white spring onion) mixture and stir gently to combine. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 15 min or until frittata is firm but slightly wobbly in the center (it will continue to cook).

Scatter with reserved potatoes (I didn't have any reserved potatoes) and rocket (baby spinach), if using. Drizzle with a little spring onion dressing and serve with remaining dressing on salad or char-grilled vegetables, if using.

51 comments:

Hi Zoe,Your frittata looks delicious! I think being an Asian, we are not used to so much butter in our food, I always sub with canola oil! The event sounds VERY INTERESTING!! Count me in! Will go search for Donna Hay's recipes, do not have any of her books YET!! So exciting!

I'm trying not to be jealous of that lemon thyme. My plant never did grow. Not sure what happened to it, but it was tragic. Oh well, I'll just have to plant another one this year! This sounds delicious!

Hi Zoe! You are an amazing baker and cook. Everything that you have made on this blog so far looks amazing and I'm sure everything tastes as good as it looks. I am like you learning as I create one dish at a time. I have tried so many new dishes and some have turned out wonderfully and others not so much! But each new recipe is like a challenge and when you succeed, you really succeed.

I like your blog hop idea. I have seen a few of these from fellow bloggers. I will check out Donna Hay's recipes and see if there is one that appeals to me and if so, I will join in. Since you have your new Barefoot cookbook, maybe you should do a recipe from her one month. I will definitely join you on that one as I just posted a new chicken recipe from her tonight. BTW, she does like butter so you may have to use it again ;)

Thanks for all your compliment. Being motivated by you and Ina Garten, I had actually nominated Ina Garten to be the theme of the blog hop for the month of May. Hope that we can learn lots of cooking and baking from her recipes. I think I need to stock up more butter now ;)

hi zoe, i have never made a fritata before and all the while i was thinking there's cream used in the recipe. I see no milk and cream here, i think i will love your fritata! will be chcking on donna hay's recipes!! * wink wink*

So happy to know that you are interested to blog hop with me with DH recipes. The event begins on 1st Mar and end on last day of the month. We can cook and blog as much as we like and link up with everyone. Can't wait for Mar to arrive...

Hope that you can participate this event. I chosen DH because she has really heaps of recipes to cook and learn. This is a free and easy event so you can join whenever you want. No pressure! ... But I will be happy to have you to blog hop with me ;)

There are so many hybrid herbs out there I would love to have but I am still on my quest. The frittata does look fabulous, but I would have to say that the dressing is my pick over the two. Glad to stop in and see this post. Sweet of you to host this blog hop-I look forward to seeing the links

I on the other hand am crazy for butter in savoury dishes, LOL.This looks delish! And your lemon thyme looks so healthy, mine looks half dead. BTW, spring onions can be kept for a good period of time, provided it is cleaned, and kept in a plastic container. It is a staple in my fridge and it an be kept for a week, minimum.